GAA: McNAMEE'S KILLER BLOW

IN the end there wasn't even the auspicious surroundings of Croke Park to console Kildare.

A week ago Kildare were booted out of the Leinster championship at Headquarters, yesterday they were humbled in front of their own in Newbridge.

It was an embarrassing and unexpected end to Kildare's championship challenge as they were simply swept aside by a rampant Offaly forward sextet.

Given recent tight meetings between the sides it was no surprise that they couldn't be separated in the early exchanges.

The midlands neighbours were level a total of five times before the half-hour mark.

But after that it was all Offaly and the game was effectively over by half-time as the Faithful men racked up a sizzling 2-4 in 10 minutes.

Quite how Kildare pick themselves up from this defeat is anyone's guess.

In fairness to Kildare, beaten finalists last year, they started well and finished well, reducing the margin to 0-4 at the death, but in between was where all the damage was done.

The sides were level a number of times early on, the first of which came after five minutes when James Coughlan's second converted free for Offaly cancelled out earlier Kildare points from Padraig Donnelly and Dermot Earley.

It was an early marker for how things would pan out and they were back level again at 0-4, 0-6 and 0-7 apiece before Offaly made the breakthrough.

When it came it was stunning, with the Faithful County racking up a devastating 2-4 between the 28th and 38th minutes.

First up came Pascal Kellaghan's opening goal, a rifled effort past Enda Murphy, to put them 1-7 to 0-7 ahead.

Kildare pulled back a point from Tadhg Fennin but they were soon suckered again with a string of Offaly points in succession.

Kildare were dazed on their feet and Niall McNamee ultimately landed the knockout blow with a second Offaly goal on 38 minutes.

Out of nowhere Offaly led 2-11 to 0-8 and Kildare needed something, anything to go their way.

Unfortunately, all Kildare got was a kick in the teeth from an Offaly side that bore no resemblance to that dumped out of Leinster by Westmeath.

Ciaran McManus kickstarted the second-half scoring and there were further points from Mark Daly and Thomas Deehan.

Trailing 0-8 to 2-15 after 42 minutes Kildare could easily have thrown in the towel. To their credit they at least kept the endline respectable.

In fact, had Dermot Earley goaled after 50 minutes instead of pulling badly wide and Tadhg Fennin's late penalty not been saved they could have been celebrating a memorable win.

Despite his late penalty miss Fennin was the super sub for Kildare hitting 1-3 after his introduction and they had the margin down to six points.

Unfortunately for Kildare not even the sublime scoring form of Johnny Doyle, 0-8 for the day, could save their blushes.

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